David Moniac

Who was David Moniac?

David Moniac was an American military officer and in 1822 the first Native American graduate of the United States Military Academy. A Creek with some Scots ancestry, who was related to major Creek leaders on both sides of his family, Moniac was the first cadet to West Point from the new state of Alabama. Moniac resigned his commission in 1822 to manage his clan's property in Alabama, where he developed a cotton plantation.

In the Second Seminole War in 1836, Moniac was commissioned as a captain and selected to command a Creek volunteer cavalry unit, the only Native American among the officers. He was killed at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp. In the 1990s, his remains were transferred from a local cemetery to the newly established Florida National Cemetery for military veterans, a few miles away.